2011 Australian Grand Prix

Karun Chandhok admitted his crash in the first lap of practice in Melbourne was his fault.

Chandhok was driving the Lotus T128 for the first time when he lost control of the car at the exit of turn three and hit the barrier.

He said: “I’m obviously disappointed to have had such a short run for my first time in the Team Lotus car, but I put my hands up to it and totally accept it was a combination of a slippery track and less grip than I expected from the tyres that combined to put me out so early.

“I’m just pleased the guys could get Jarno [Trulli] out in the afternoon session and it shows what a great team this is that they could get the car fixed that quickly to ensure Jarno could get a decent number of laps under his belt in FP2.”

Trulli added: “The team worked really well to get the car ready for the afternoon session but we struggled a bit with a few issues that meant I couldn’t really push.

“We’ll work tonight on set-up options and there are definitely some areas to look at where we can find some pace so I think tomorrow we’ll be OK.”

Lotus ended the day ahead of just the two Virgins and the two HRTs, the latter not setting any times.

Mike Gascoyne said the team had suffered some reliability problems: “In the second session we had a fuel pressure problem on Jarno’s car and an electronics issue on Heikki’s car, both of which limited our running, but we were able to solve those issues and work through most of the afternoon’s plan.

“For tomorrow there is a lot more to come from the car. We are clearly not quite where we expected to be in performance terms but we understand the reasons for that – it is proving quite tricky for us to get the best out of the tyres but we will work on that tonight and when we improve I am confident we will move up to where we expect to be in qualifying tomorrow.”

Because he’s friendly, funny (he was handing out “I saw the Senna movie before Karun” t-shirts last year), and very knowledgeable about the sport when he was doing commentary for 5Live during Free Practice sessions.

who gives a ***** about how friendly he is. He had an F1 car and he lost in his first lap. That shows you how incompetent he is. He doesn’t belong to F1 and being friendly, lovely, sexy, humble or whatever changes nothing. My granny is lovely, do you mind if Lotus gives her a try ?

This guy is a joke. As for the fact that he recognized his mistake, he had no other choice

Lots of fantastic drivers have made silly errors throughout their careers. I don’t rate Karun much but he’s had almost no time to show his worth in F1 given the testing ban and the fact he got lumped with the dreadful HRT for only part of a season so I think it’s a bit unfair to be so critical of him.

He doesnâ€™t belong to F1 and being friendly, lovely, sexy, humble or whatever changes nothing.

By that logic Button should have been culled out way back. But wait he got long enough stick for illegal double diffuser to win him a title.
Sad but true – Ultimately maintaining Public Relationship with those who matter does matter. So good on Chandok for playing his cards right

By that logic Button should have been culled out way back. But wait he got long enough stick for illegal double diffuser to win him a title.

Button soundly beat Rubens in the first 7 races and dominated the field in a magnificent fashion. In the second half of the season the RB5 was clearly faster but Jenson did the job and deservedly got the trophy. He needed talent to do that.

“who gives a ***** about how friendly he is” – a lot of people. A person’s personality goes a long way. Just look at Alonso – one of the greatest on the grid yet hated by many because of his personality.

That HRT probably had a boatload of mechanical grip due to the fact that the aero sucked anyway. Between the different mechanical grip and new tires, he probably entered into a car that he flat out didn’t understand. At least he didn’t lose it under a safety car like others have done in the past… still dumb move though.

except for the fact that an F1 car is infinitely more complex than a Focus (i am aware that you probably werent seriously comparing them) i dont get all the hate toward chandok, he might not be the fastest driver ever but hes a nice guy, and seems to know his stuff.

Although you have to feel sorry for TL and for Chandhok, I think it is a good for F1, because this is that sort of thing that will be discussed among fanatics and casual viewers – ”Barely half a minute had past of the 2011 season, and we already had a car in the wall!”

the guy is a complete tool. Saw him loose the car this morning. It seemed almost surreal how it happened. The chap just cant drive to save his life. Saw him on 5th gear disgracing formula 1 drivers and loosing control of a Porsche Panamera.
Lets call it a day mate.

So unlucky, i see he has plummeted in most peoples rating of him, but for me it remains exactly the same. It could have happened to anyone. You cant just see that crash and then just think “yeah he’s rubbish get out of f1″ It’s a freak accident that he would never do again even if he did 10 grand prix distances back to back, It’s just one of those things.
People are acting like he cant make it round a lap in an f1 car without crashing it, it’s a one off, of course he can drive a formula 1 car.

There was that time when Jetlag was sufficient to explain such an accident. I guess teams have become too economical with their willingnss to understand. It wont surprise me much if the cause was just an unfamiliarity with these new tyres on a green track. Makes me wonder why he wasn’t allowes to do any pre season test.